Posted tagged ‘Associated Press Poll’

The Florida Gators won the BCS Championship game and also earned the #1 spot in the final Associated Press college football poll, released just a short time ago.

I may be preaching to the choir, but the championship NEEDS to be decided by a playoff! How come all other divisions of college football can do this and the BIG BOYS can’t? What will it take to institute a playoff system. Please tell me!

This was a great season of college football, only to be ruined by a lack of a playoff system. I don’t want to take anything away from the Gators, they’re a great team and deserve to be national champions. But what about the other deserving schools? What a ratings bonanza this could have been! Just look at what March Madness has done for the NCAA! Oh well, I can dream right?

So, I ask this of everyone: Who would you vote as your national champion? Do we need a playoff? Thoughts?

Florida is No. 1 in the AP Top 25. Utah is perfect at No. 2, though not perfectly happy.

Texas and Southern California also claimed to be the best — but media voters didn’t think so.

The Gators received 48 first-place votes and 1,606 points in the poll released early Friday, after they beat Oklahoma 24-14 in the BCS national title game.

Utah, the only team in major college football to go undefeated this season, got 16 first-place votes and 1,519 points.

“I thought we had an outside chance,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said in a telephone interview with the AP. “There was enough national sentiment, I thought we might get the No. 1 slot. It wasn’t to be.”

Florida won its third AP national championship and second in the last three seasons. Steve Spurrier and Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel led the Gators to the 1996 title.

No. 3 USC received one first-place vote. Texas was No. 4, and will have to settle with finishing ahead of fifth-ranked Oklahoma.

Alabama’s loss to Utah dropped the Crimson Tide to No. 6 in the final poll.

TCU, Utah’s Mountain West rival, finished seventh, followed by Penn State, Ohio State and Oregon.

Boise State led off the second 10, followed by Texas Tech, Georgia, Mississippi and Virginia Tech.

Oklahoma State, Cincinnati, Oregon State, Missouri and Iowa rounded out the top 20.

Florida State, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Michigan State and BYU were the final five.